1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for converting at least part of a stream of a flowable medium flowing down a tube into a flat stream having a substantially uniform flow across its width.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are many instances in mining and other industries in which it would be desirable to spread a stream of a flowable medium in a tube out into a flat stream having a uniform flow across its width. Such instances include those where it is desired to feed processing equipment with a flat stream of flowable medium or where it is desired to separate a stream accurately into a plurality of parts. The latter situation particularly arises when it is desired to take samples from a stream of a flowable medium and it is necessary to know what proportion of the total stream has been drawn off into the sample. The difficulty of achieving the conversion of a tubular flow to a flat planar flow is increased where the flowable material is a slurry or other dispersion of solid particles in a fluid in which case it is desirable to obtain not only a uniform flow across the width of the stream but also a uniform particle density and particle size distribution across the width of the stream.
The present invention is designed to provide a device and a method for achieving such a conversion of the flow pattern of a stream of a flowable medium.